CBI to call for better performance management in Civil Service

The government needs to do more to ensure that senior civil servants perform to the best of their ability, according to the CBI.

The employers body will call for closer monitoring of the performance of top civil servants if the government is to deliver on its promise to ‘make public services safe for a generation’.

Rod Aldridge, chairman of the CBI Public Services Strategy Board, will tell the annual CBI Public Services dinner at University College London tonight that higher standards of service to the public can only be secured by introducing a new culture of continuous improvement and transformation in our public services.

He will say that this means leading from the centre and making top civil servants “truly accountable for driving change”.

“It is nor about bashing the mandarins, but about realising the potential of our public services,” Aldridge will tell delegates.

“Departments should be assessed on their capacity to deliver transformation and value for money, as well as meeting agreed performance targets. In short, we need a comprehensive performance assessment for central government.”

Aldridge will suggest that to incentivise top civil servants the government should link a senior public servant’s career development to their performance.